Bybit

Bybit was founded in 2018 by Singaporean entrepreneur Ben Zhou, who currently serves as CEO. In 2022, the company relocated its headquarters from Singapore to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.^[8][7][9]

In November 2023, the FTX bankruptcy estate sued Bybit for nearly $1 billion.^[10] It alleged that Bybit's investment arm Mirana prioritized withdrawals from FTX in November 2022 amid concerns about its solvency and withdrew nearly $500 million before withdrawals stopped.^[10] The suit claimed that Bybit used FTX assets to expedite withdrawals, blocked FTX from reclaiming $125 million, and devalued tokens worth tens of millions through BitDAO.^[10] FTX also contended that a token swap with Alameda Research in October 2021 was reversed in May 2023, when BitDAO restructured tokens, limiting redemption rights.^[10] In October 2024, Bybit settled its FTX case by paying $228 million.^[11]

2025 hack

On February 21, 2025, Bybit announced on X that it had been hacked.^[4] According to Bybit, about 400,000 Ethereum was stolen,^[12][13] which had an approximate notional value of $1.4 billion, making it the largest cryptocurrency exchange hack to date.^[4] The firm reported that it was able to replenish its reserves within 72 hours by securing 447,000 ether tokens through emergency funding efforts.^[14] The liquidity was provided by firms including Galaxy Digital, FalconX and Wintermute.^[14] To aid Bybit customer withdrawals, a whale or institutional entity transferred 40,000 ETH from Binance, Bitget and MEXC.^[15]

The attacker exploited vulnerabilities in Bybit's multi-signature wallet system, facilitated by compromised infrastructure at Safe{Wallet}, a third-party provider.^[16]

Blockchain analytics firms Arkham Intelligence and Elliptic claimed they were able to trace the hack to Lazarus Group, an advanced persistent threat tied to North Korea.^[13][17] The US Federal Bureau of Investigation also attributed the hack to North Korea, blaming "TraderTraitor actors".^[18][19]

In August 2021, Bybit sponsored Ukrainian esports organization Natus Vincere (NAVI) in a three-year deal.^[20] Soon after, Bybit signed a similar agreement with Danish esports club Astralis featuring its branding on uniforms.^[21][22]

In early 2022, Bybit entered Formula 1 as a sponsor of the Oracle Red Bull Racing team with a multi-year partnership, reportedly worth $150 million over three years.^[23] The sponsorship ran through the 2022 to 2023 seasons, and concluded at the end of 2024 by mutual agreement.^[24]

The platform has faced regulatory warnings in several jurisdictions.^{[25][26][27][28][29]}.

Bybit EU GmbH, a subsidiary of the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, was authorised as a crypto-asset service provider (CASP^[30]) under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) on 28 May 2025, and operates a dedicated platform, bybit.eu, for users in the European Economic Area (EEA).^[31][32] However, as of 12 May 2026, 50 days before the end of MiCA's transitional period, visitors from the EEA accessing the global platform bybit.com were reportedly still directed by default to a registration flow governed by the Terms of Service of BybitVirtualAssetPlatformOperator L.L.C., an entity incorporated in Dubai and regulated by the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).^{[33] [34]}While the Austrian-licensed entity is referenced in the global website's footer ("Licensed in Vienna"), it is not the contracting party for users registering on bybit.com^[34]. In addition, Bybit continued to offer Tether (USDT) to EEA users, despite the stablecoin not meeting MiCA's requirements for e-money tokens.^[35]